A Brooklyn mother taking pain medication following a C-section delivery fell ill on Thursday and died in her bed — where she rolled over and accidentally smothered her newborn baby.
Marjorie Lyons’ brother made the tragic discovery around 9 a.m. after her twin 6-year-old girls came to his downstairs apartment on Legion Street in Brownsville in a panic.
“Mommy’s asleep,” the girls told their uncle, Jerome Lyons, 19. “We can’t wake Mommy!”
He raced upstairs, where he found his sister unresponsive and 11-day-old Preston Warren Alexander helplessly beneath her — not breathing and purple.
Marjorie was pronounced dead at the scene, shortly after 9 a.m. Preston was rushed to Brookdale Hospital, where he was dead on arrival.
Lyons, 34, complained about lingering pain from the C-section and was worried about how drowsy she got when she took oxycodone to ease the pain.
“I spoke to her Sunday night,” said Marjorie’s father, Douglas. “We came down to see the baby. She was saying she had a slight fever. And she did go to the hospital this week for that slight fever.
“I think it was oxycodone for pain. She said the medication was making her too drowsy. That was her complaint. It subsided the pain, but it was making her very drowsy.
“It’s something I’m going to try to look into. Maybe ask if she took too much or not.”
Lyons said the family is struggling to figure out how to break the news to the girls.
“We just tell them that she’s sick,” Lyons said. “They keep coming back and saying, ‘Why are we taking so long to take her to the doctor it Mommy is sick?’
“We’re just saying that we have to through certain procedures first, but Mommy’ll soon go to the hospital.
“They want Mommy to go to the hospital so she can go get better and come back home.”
The mother’s heartbroken family gathered outside along Legion Street, exchanging hugs and wiping away tears.
“She was a great person,” said a pal, Simonette Adams, 32. “That was my best friend for 23 years. I just spoke to her last night.”
Police are investigating, and the Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the cause of death.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Kirstan Conley